Theories of offending

• Proposed by Sheldon - 1949
• Aggressive + criminal behaviour based on physical appearance

Sheldon proposed 3 body types:

• Endomorph - fat/soft/relaxed/social/loving nature
• Mesomorph - muscular/aggressive/uncaring/deceiving - THE CRIMINAL!
• Ectomorph - thin/fragile/introvert/self-conscious

SHELDON STUDY:

AIM: investigated link betwenn body shape + criminality

METHOD: photos of male delinquents + college students rated by Sheldon on scale 1 -7 based on the 3 body types

RESULTS: mesomorph rating for delinquents = 5.4  mesomorph rating for student = 3.8

CONCLUSION: male criminal delinquents associated with mesomorphic body shape 

Methodological issues:

• when selecting sample of delinquents / didnt use legal criteria for defining 'delinquent'
• Sheldon's data re-analysed using legal criteria / found no association between delinquency + mesomorphic body type
• Sheldon rated photos himself / biased

Cause + effect issues:

• high testosterone = impact body shape = more aggressive
• people with muscular build / learn from early age can only get what they want by being aggressive + dominant
• muscular body type attractive to gang members = entice them to commit crime = as more successful at offending

Wrong assumptions:

• Sheldon automatically made assumption college students = innocent / they too may have commited crimes in past / so not suitable comparison for this experiment

• proposed by Lombrosso - 1876

• "criminal separate species - between modern + primitive humans"

• physical features of head + face determines 'born criminals' / criminality inherited by genetic transmission of atavistic features + primitive characteristics
• Characteristics of a criminal: large ears/high cheekbones/prominent jaw/curly hair
• 'ciminals BORN NOT MADE!' (as these features heritable)

Methodological issues:

• didn't compare criminal with non-criminal / no comparative measure if physical features associated with criminals
• Lombrosso's sample group had people with psychological + physiological disorders / he may have confused criminality with psychopathy
• wasn't scientific

Issues in society:

• said dark skin = criminal characteristic / leads to Prejudice + Discrimination + Racism + stereotyping

Cause + effect issues:

• environment could cause change in features / so nurture side of nature + nurture debate
• theory leads to Self-Fulfilling-Prophecy / expect a person to act a certain way / point gets reinforced / person fulfills it / so actually becomes a criminal

• Twin studies used to measure genetic influence - as they have same genes
• identical twins = monzygotic (MZ)
• non-identical twins = dizygotic (DZ)

Lange study

• MZ twins = 77% concordance rate of having criminal tendencies
• DZ twins = 12% concordance rate
• therefore suggests that criminalilty is inherited / when both twins show criminal behaviour it must mean it's INNATE (= born with it)

• low concordance / rates are not 100% / so environment may also influence

• twins share same environment + upbringing / so unable to distinguish whether it's genes or environment

• MZ twins treated as one so both want to be criminals = so high concordance rate for criminal behaviour / DZ twins treated independently + separately = so low concordance rate for criminal behaviour 

• if twins adopted separately nature + nurture gets changed

Mednick study

AIM: study heritability of criminal behaviour in adoption study

METHOD: Danish adoption data / conviction rates of males compared with their biological + adoptive parents

RESULTS: 20% males = biological parents had convictions / adopted parents no convictions
13.5% males = biological parents no convictions / adopted parents no convictions

CONCLUSION: highlights a genetic effect in male adopted twins 

• children often adopted at later age / many learnt criminal behaviour from their biological parents before

• upheaval of going to a different environment during adoption / may cause criminal behaviour

• even adopted children placed in matched environment to thair biological parents / so environment still plays a part

• biological theory very reductionist / reduces complex precesses to oversimplified theory 

• There's been attempt to link criminal behaviour to possession of extra Y chromosome
• Y chromosome determines maleness / responsible for male sexual development + testosterone / so more aggression

Jacobs

• Atypical chromosome pattern XXY in 1.5% of prison population / only 0.1% in normal population 

Evaluation of chromosomal approach - AO2s

• Further studies failed to confirm the link / Witkin found = only 12 out of 4500 had extra Y chromosome + none of them were offenders / so theory cant be accepted

• maternal deprivation = bond with mother is broken
• 44 thieves study / use of retrospective case studies / showed a link between separation from mother before age of 5 + 'affectionless psychopathy'
• used control group of 'less disturbed youngsters'
• concluded disruption of attachment bond between child + mother leads to juvenile delinquency (criminal behaviour)
• Bowlby stated if maternal bond broken before child 2 and half yrs old = leads to serious effects on intellectual, social + emotional development
• Predicted these effects are permanent + irreversible 

STRENGTHS :)

• Qualitative data / rich + detailed / better understanding

LIMITATIONS :(

• Retrospective data / leads to telescoping (fill in the blanks in your memory) as it looks at events that happened in the past
• Issues with bias / reliability
• No simple cause + effect
• Control group of 'less disturbed youngsters' / is subjective / how do you measure that?
• Very pessimistic
• Rutter said Bowlby confused deprivation (existing bond broken) + privation (bond was never formed) 

• Privation = never forming an attachment bond
• Rutter argued 'affectionless psychopathy + delinquency' more likely to result from privation (not deprivation like Bowly said)

AIM: looked at delinquency in young teenage boys from Isle of Wight

RESULTS: found little evidence for a link between early separation + delinquency /

CONCLUSION: argued family discord (E.g:arguing) more contributory to offending behaviour than separation = as bond is never formed (privation)
 

Raine Study

AIM: ivestigate patterns of brain activity in murderers compared to non-murderers using PET scans

METHOD: Ps (men + women) charged with murder / they had mental disorders: brain damage/learning disability etc / brain activity was measured with PET scan agter radioactive glucose injection
RESULTS: when compared control group + murderers significant differences found: murderers = less activity in frontal areas of brain / less activity in between 2 halves of brain (corpus callosum) + different levels of activity in amygdala
CONCLUSION: areas with abnormal activities associated with - aggression / lack of fear / low self-control

Raine said both nature + nurture / as could be biological causes + environmental triggers present

Sutherland's 'Differential Association Theory'

Offending behaviour learnt from attitudes, motives + techniques for commiting crime
Learning from close association with other people
From these people offenders learn deviant values + norms